oops! Photo catch-up time

hmmm...3 weeks since I've posted. Grandparents everywhere are annoyed that there are no new photos. Time to rectify that! (Yes, I'm going to backdate the posts to match the photos ;-)

Ria is now sitting properly....ta dah!

Here we are at Raging Waters at a friend's birthday party....much fun! Check out Iain's "Hobbes" hat.

...and Mona has taken up crochet. Here's Iain's slippers:

Just Some Thoughts

I was realizing the other day that Iain isn't going to remember any of the stuff we do now when he's grown. He'll remember just a handful of events from when he's 4, but really not any from when he's 3.

Its so sad....we have so much FUN, and his life is so full and complex....but he won't really remember any of it. It will only be retained as personality traits and a general sense of "happy childhood". He'll look at the pictures and wonder how he felt and what he did.

Poot.

It will only be us who remember that Iain would (as he did last night) make a clear space at the foot of his bed to be the sea, and put his 3 turtles (Daddy turtle, Jake, and baby brother Tolon), his duck, little froggy, and his dolphin in the sea. He and the two aardvarks were up at the head of the bed on dry land to sleep. Only we will remember how Ria pulled (pulls ;-) her onesie over her face when we're changing her diaper to play a rollicking game of "Where's Ria?!". She's so proud of herself for being so funny, and does it over and over.

Iain right now remembers very well things from 2 years ago, so I'd somehow forgotten that he'll forget those things as he enters the age of reason in the next 2 years.

This has all been precipitated by the fact that Iain's closest playmate, Jo, is entering Kindergarten tomorrow, and suddenly I can see how "these years go so fast", as people say. Funny, they're not going so fast from where I stand....but now Iain is suddenly only 1 year away from real school. EEP!

Sometimes I feel annoyed at myself that I'm not working and "filling my potential", or "doing a real job"..... but at times like this I'm really happy that I've been so lucky to be able to stay at home for these few years while the kids bounce through the silly/crazy/annoying/fun/exhausting pre-reason stage of life. I've always hated the annoying word "precious" that people over-use in relation to children....but this stage of their lives is pretty precious, I guess. (There, I've used it....never using it again!)

Having a "Birgitta moment" here ;-)

OK, off to find the floor, I'm sure its under there somewhere! A 2nd cup of tea will probably help. Little Girl is asleep, and Crazy Big Brother is having his screen time (Blues Clues, an old tape from his big Stenberg cousins). Life is calm for the next 15 minutes.

Silly girl faces, tickly toes, and all that stuff

I seem to post Ria pictures with just one or 2 different expressions on her face....so here's a different one. I figure its a "Mom, what ARE you doing?" sort of face.

Here's Little Miss, working on her crawling pose. She still mostly scoots around on her belly, dragging herself along with her arms and a bit of leg scrunching (less rolling these days), but pulls herself to her hands and knees and rocks many times a day, preparing for the big crawling event.
Here's Crazy Big Brother nibbling on Ria's foot to make her laugh:

And, finally, proof that we don't only dress her in hand me downs from her brother. Once in a blue moon we actually DO dress her like a girl. Here she practices her standing.


Ria is now 10 months old (oops, we forgot to do the picture!), has 6 teeth (the last one was quite annoying!), almost crawls, and has 2 pseudo-words: "da-da", which means any beloved person, and "ki" (or an approximation thereof....the "k" sound at least is consistent) when she sees the cat. Or, at least we like to THINK she says these ;-).

Cousins!

On the 1st weekend in August, the New Zealand cousins (Rucklidge/Harvie) came through on the last leg of their round-the-world journey. Not much little girl involvment, but here's the boys!

Boys on trains: Toby (just turned 3), Duncan (almost 5) and Iain (almost 4).

Boys playing with trains:

Toby, Julia, Iain, and William, waiting for a train:

And, finally, boys climbing around "The Jungle".
...and one picture showing everyone (but me....SOMEONE's got to run the camera!) in one place at one time. Boys are at the table, William, Julia, Ria, and Will are in the background (I think they're on Skype talking to Uncle Alastair and Aunt Bev, in fact,so maybe we can count them as being in the picture too?):

Hiking at Fremont Older Open Space Preserve

For the summer, Iain and I have had a few "Iain-Mommy Days", when Ria has been with her care provider, so Iain and I have some time alone together. We went on a hike at the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve last week that lasted 1.75 hours (including snack breaks). Not bad for a little guy!

Here we are having a pluot break:
The signposts are fun as we get to pull out the map and decide which way to go next:
Here's the view to the East from Hunter's Point:

Sunny California Weekends

Don't worry, no more "bucket incidents" to report on ;-). Just some happy summer pictures.

Iain flying his 1st kite:
Ria enjoying the bounty of summer berries (a.k.a.: "You shouldda seen the OTHER guy!")...when it comes to berries and fruit, there is NOTHING like California in the summer time! (Blackberries again...they are the most "photogenic". Needless to say, I only serve them at dinner on bath nights!)
Iain, Ria and I lounging in downtown Mountain View by the fountain:
Peek-a-Boo!
Josephine and Iain doing workbooks together:

...and it starts.

*sigh*.

So, yesterday I had to pull a bucket off Ria's head.

It's started. The sibling rivalry thing. We knew it would, and we'd been having some signs, but things were still pretty idyllic, as far as what is humanly possible with a baby in the house usurping the 1st born's perceived ownership of all things, especially his parents.

Ria, for her part, is learning to scream in agony when a toy is removed from her grasp.....but that doesn't compare to the scream she lets out when a plastic toy bucket is wedged on her head and her brother is deperately trying to pull it back off before I get back into the room. You know, REAL agony.

I have to admit....all I had to do was tell Iain to go sit on the "naughty chair". No complaints, no hollering, no screaming, nothing. He knew that he deserved to be there, and he took it "like a man". Just walked to that chair, sat down, and waited for the timer to beep out its 3 minutes.

The next 12 months should be a study in psychic pain....but after that things should start calming down, based on our experience of when Iain started to get easier. I just need to SURVIVE the next 12 months!

(help!)

Hey, at least tooth #4 is finally in!
16 more to go. *sigh*.

9 month stats, etc.

Hello!

Ria is now 9 months old:
Her rate of growth has slowed, from about 90% length and weight at 6.5 months, down to more like 80%.
Height: 28.5 inches (72.5 cm)
Weight: 20.5 # (~9.25 kg)
Head circumference: 44.8 cm

other stats: 3 teeth, with #4 tooth 99.8% out, but just not there yet. Still rolling everywhere and not properly crawling. She tries, but she only gets the leg bits, she hasn't figured out the upper body involvement, which is not suprising since she still isn't particularly interested in sitting still, so the upper body muscles are still a bit weak. She loves standing supported.

William and Iain went to the airplane museum last week:while Ria practiced standing supported.and here's kids playing together ;-)

Hah! Little Trickster!

I have suspected for over a month that little miss "I can roll everywhere but can't sit" was actually little miss "Why should I sit, that's boring." And, what do you know, at the park the other day she decided that when in the sand, sitting was great, and she sat completely unsupported for over 5 minutes while running sand through her fingers.

I KNEW IT!!! What a little trickster. So, she can officially sit (finally), but won't do it at home 'cause its too boring. (Can't blame her, really.....if you're sitting you have to wait for things to come to you....as getting into a sitting position doesn't really work until one is crawling. With rolling, you can get it ALL!)

No crawling yet, but she's starting to pull her knees under her a bit in an attempt to get to objects in a linear fashion (rather than rolling around until its within reach). Soon, I'm sure. I'll try to get a video and post it soon.

Comparisons....

Hey there.....notice anything similar in the following photos?
yep...same jammies!

I actually have some pictures of Iain in those jammies at 18.5 months, which is much more impressive numbers-wise, but it was obvious when I put the pictures together that they were too small for him at that point, so this seems to be when they fit them equally...right when we bought them for Iain.

(For the vision impared: the picture is of Iain and Ria wearing the same pair of jammies, Ria at 8.5 months, and Iain at 13 months.)

Lovely June days

Some cute pics:

I was hoping this time around to get a roller baby, and i had images in my head of Ria rolling under the couch. (Iain was static until he started crawling....he never did distance rolling.) AND, I got a rolling baby! She loves rolling under the couch and playing with its undersides. Iain kindly will provide her with toys while she's under there. What a nice brother.

Iain got a new wading pool, as the previous one sprang leaks (it was a hand me down, so it had had a good long life). This one attaches to the hose to spray a fountain.
Mommy and girl. Note Ria's reduced lock length: The longer hair was cute, but it was a pain to get the oatmeal and peas out after meals. The shorter hair is MUCH easier to clean! We can consider longer hair once she no longer obsessively rubs her head with her food.
Grrrrl Power!!!! Only 8 months old and she already is in love with summer in California....most especially the blackberries! Needless to say, after this particular meal she went STRAIGHT into the bath.

8 months old, partying at the park

Ria is 8 months old!
This weekend we went to a local park for a NICU reunion (largely for the NICU nurses....they get to see all those sickly and tiny babies turned into happy normal little kids....its nice to show off how happy and healthy they are). Here's a few photos:

Ria in her new Ergo baby backpack (I can't use the Baby Bjorn any more as it throws my back out). This thing is VERY comfortable. (Gotta love William's amazing ability to take good pictures of me.)
Iain climbing around.
Rachel and Josephine came by the other day to pick Iain up, and read a story along the way:Finally, happy kids ;-)

gifts and letters

A few cute developments in the Aker-Ruck household ;-)

Ria has starting giving me little gifts of rice cake and binkies to put in my mouth. She's so proud of herself, looks at me, smiles, and aims the rice cake or binky at my mouth. hee hee! I feel loved!

Iain is starting to experiment with writing letters. Drawing is really not his medium, so he usually doesn't try, but for my birthday card, William coached Iain on how to draw his name....and for William's birthday card, I just suggested he write his name, and he did it all himself. He did the classic right to left and backwards letters thing. Ok, there's only one letter in his name he can do backwards, but there it was.

ahhh, Tasty Baby!!!

Hello all!

whoops! I haven't updated in 3 weeks! I'm blowing my curve! All is well in the land of reasonably happy and mostly well-adjusted kids. I haven't been taking many pictures because i've been working on Iain's bemory book for his preschool (it's the "final exam" of the adult education class that our presechool is officially). Or, rather, there's lots of nice Iain pictures, and not much of Ria. That's done, though, so life goes on!

Here's my one recent picture of Little Miss Messy in her "HA HA, Mommy, I've got BOTH spoons!" post-watermelon splendor. Now that she's starting on the road to feeding herself, she's becoming a VERY tasty baby....I like the watermelon flavor best, myself. I think her forehead likes the watermelon almost as much as her mouth does! Considering how much i hate spooning the dreaded gooey food, I'm pushing her fast to the self feeding, as i did Iain.
One of the highlights of May at Iain's preschool is the no-Moms-allowed campout in the play yard. Iain had a fabulous time with daddy, cooking his own hotdogs and marshmallows (couldn't be bothered to make them into Smores), playing with daddy, and bouncing around our new Hobitat tent. No tent pics here (someday when i update the "regular" gallery with more pictures, there will be pics there), but here's a couple:

Iain and daddy roasting hot dogs:The kids got a cool glow-in-the-dark necklace, here displayed on the neck of he himself:And this is what it looks like when 2 kids swing around their necklaces in a darkened nursery school bathroom:Finally, a nice picture of Iain from a few weeks ago.
In the land of parenthood:
With the close of the 1st year of preschool, I suddenly feel like i'm no longer desperately trying to catch up. I went on bed rest 3 days before the start of preschool, and have felt like i've been running ragged and barely hanging on since then. Suddenly, the school year is over, the memory book is done, the bedtime ritual for both kids leaves us free starting 7:30 pm (most days), Ria is moving quickly to self-feeding solids and starting to drop nursings, and Iain is reading books and fully potty trained and often capable of a reasonable level of conflict management skills (read: doesn't resort to screaming/crying when someone else takes the toy he is holding). Woah! The 1st 6months of 2 kids is over, eh? Well, 1st 8 months, really ;-).

Last night when both kids were asleep, i just looked at them lying in bed, and felt so calm and happy. What lovely kids we have. (The wafting scent of watermelon just added to the ambience ;-) Iain is even sounding like he might like to share a bedroom with Ria!

Life is Good.

YOW! and "That Which Is Old Is New Again"

I found a great way to get Ria to sleep FAST....

First, take a tired baby who (it turns out) isn't hungry, 2nd, try to nurse her to sleep, 3rd, experience the teeth, 4th, have child experience the bloodcurdling scream from mommy, 5th, the child joins in with her own bloodcurdling scream, 6th: apply binky, and rock.
In 45 seconds the baby is asleep.

I'm hoping that she has decided she didn't like that scary noise and we won't try this one again....but I must say, it sure was an effective sleep aid!

In other news:

the little miss rolls quite well now, and rolls aroud, back and forth, all day. ...though she hasn't managed the "roll across the room" maneuver (yet). Click on the little image below for the video.



and in Iain news: That Which Is Old Is New Again. His old hair is back! This should make bath time easier! He decided that he was no longer afraid of the loud noise of the clippers, and within 2 hours, he was shorn.

7 months with a Crazy Big Brother

Whew! 7 months already! here she is. (Please do appreciate her pretty 12 month sized outfit...I'm about to roll her clothing revs up a size again. WHEW!)
Since the last post she has deigned to roll over, and is now doing it about once every 2 days. Finally, proof that she can (as we've suspected for a while), but she just doesn't care to be on her belly. Needless to say, we've increased the number of tummy times she's subjected to daily.

One of the best developments over the last few weeks is that she has really honed into the fact that Iain will perform for her if she smiles and laughs. We've been promising this to Iain, and its finally here, and he's LOVING it! We've been calling him her "Crazy Big Brother", and he's totally into that title, and finally he's getting to play the role with her appreciating it properly. The following picture is a bit fuzzy, but it really captures the look on her face best:
...and, click the following photo to link to a video of the CACKLING!
On Iain news: we've been forced to give up "quiet time." No more pseudo-naps for Iain anymore. He was starting to view them as equivalent to a prison sentence, and was getting very negative and angry in general. We've replaced them with "mellow time", when he is requested to play on his own for a bit while I get things done, but no requirement to be in his room, and no timer. He's responded wonderfully to this, and is back to his happy self, and quite willing to mostly leave me alone to get things done for 20 minute chunks of time. It does, however, rule out me lounging around with a book and a tea (or beer) for that time, though, as my excuse is that I need to get things done.

In general: life is fabulous....busy and exhausting, of course, but overall its just a lovely life. (Though it would be better if a certain little girl would stop waking up at 5:45am!!!!)

oops! forgot Ria's 6 1/2 month stats!

Oops!

I forgot to post Ria's 6 1/2 month stats (erm, no 6 month pictures....we're slugs!).

weight: 18#12oz (8.50 kg) =~90% for 6.5 months
height: 27.25" (69.2 cm) =~90%
head: 43.4 cm =~ 70%

She's loving her solids, but is still so-so on her solids eating skills. After all, she's only 5.5 months old adjusted age, so that's expected. Over the next month she should zoom forward on her solids eating.....i hope! She's still nursing ever 1.5 hours, and I'm looking forward to feeding her just a bit less frequently.

She is still a bit wobbly, nowhere near sitting on her own. We think she could physically roll over back to front just fine (she's done it a few times front to back to get out of tummy time), except she doesn't WANT to be on her tummy, so she won't do it. Check out her sleeping posture, I think it says it all:


Best of all, she's just the happiest little kid. Smiles everywhere. ;-)

more cute kid photos

Ria enjoying her exer-saucer:
Iain enjoying his boots on a sunny day....no pants needed: